


Goodnight, Gabriel

by StarlightDragon



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bunker Fluff, Candy, Fluff, Human Gabriel, Hurt/Comfort, Implied Castiel/Dean Winchester, M/M, Nightmares, Random Knitting, Sleep, Sleepy Cuddles, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-28
Updated: 2016-06-28
Packaged: 2018-07-18 18:29:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7325755
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarlightDragon/pseuds/StarlightDragon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Once he becomes human and finds that he has to sleep for the first time in his very, very long life, Gabriel's opinion of sleep goes through five different stages.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Goodnight, Gabriel

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Treasure7](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Treasure7/gifts).



> So I've totally written things similar to this before and I do intend to break out of my comfort zone and write sabriel space AUs soon, but for now, here's a thing. Because sleepy Gabriel will never not be my favorite trope.
> 
> This is a birthday gift for Treasure7 (princessofsabriel on tumblr) who is an actual princess who deserves all the lovely things in the world, so even though it's a couple days late you should all totally go wish her a happy birthday!!
> 
> The fic came from a prompt given to me by charlie-bradcherry who was nice enough to send me something from her ideas list to help me get over writer's block, thankyou so much!!

(I)

Gabriel tried and failed to muffle his yawn.

"I don't know what's happening," he grumbled, pulling another Jolly Rancher out of his pocket and shoving it in his mouth. "My mouth is all dry and my head feels fuzzy and I can't focus and my eyes don't want to stay open and I feel like I should lie down for a long time and just not move."

Sam giggled. "That means you're tired. You need to sleep."

Gabriel turned to Sam with a look of absolute outrage on his face. "I don't need to sleep. That's something humans do."

"Hate to break it to you, but you're human now. Which means it's something you do too," Sam pointed out.

"Nope. I'm not going to sleep. Sleep's stupid and boring and it wastes time and I don't care if I'm an angel or a human or a stick insect, I'm not gonna do it." Gabriel pouted at Sam.

Sam decided to humor him, because that was far easier than trying to reason with the most stubborn (former) angel in the garrison. "Then you're going to have to find a way to stay awake, aren't you? Because I don't think sheer willpower is gonna cut it for much longer."

Gabriel stood up, swaying on his feet as he stumbled over to the kitchen. "Coffee. Humans use that to stay awake, right?"

"Yes, we do," Sam grinned, emphasizing the 'we' purely because he knew it would annoy Gabriel. It was his very tiny piece of revenge for all the shit Gabriel had pulled in the past. "And if you want to wake up more quickly, and for longer, drink it black and strong. No sugar."

"No-" Gabriel's eyes widened in horror, but he nodded, determined. "Right. No sugar."

He mumbled the phrase over and over again, turning it almost into a chant as he filled up the coffee pot (after a few instructions from Sam) and set it to boil.

Gabriel pulled out a chair from the kitchen table and sat down. "I'm just gonna sit here for a minute while I wait for that to heat up," he mumbled, slurring the words so that they blended into one.

"You do that," Sam grinned.

There was no response, and a moment later, a small snore came from the direction of the kitchen. Sam poked his head round the door to see Gabriel slumped forwards on the table, head pressed against his hand as a makeshift pillow, coffee pot still bubbling on the stove behind him.

Sam fought back a giggle, before walking over and scooping Gabriel up in his arms. He didn't weigh anywhere near as much as Sam expected, and it was easy for Sam to carry him bridal style to his bedroom and place him down on the bed, draping a soft blanket over his sleeping form.

"Goodnight, Gabriel," he whispered, turning out the light on his way out of the room.

 

(II)

"Hey, that sleep thing wasn't so bad!"

Sam had expected Gabriel to be embarrassed, even mad at himself for falling asleep when he'd been so adamant that he never would. And yet here he was, stood in the doorway to the living room the following afternoon, stretching and shaking out his shoulders as he discovered for the first time what it felt like to wake up after a genuinely good night's sleep, looking almost pleased with himself.

"What did I tell you?" Sam chuckled, feeling a sudden rush of affection towards Gabriel, patting the spot next to himself on the couch.

Gabriel plopped down into it and nuzzled his head against Sam's arm. Sam frowned, because Gabriel was a lot of things but before this moment he had never been cuddly, but Sam didn't get a lot of physical contact these days and it actually felt nice, so he didn't try to move Gabriel away. 

"Is there anything you need? Some water? Want that cup of coffee now?" Sam  wasn't entirely sure how to deal with someone who'd just slept for the first time in their life. Add that to the list of situations he'd never, ever expected to find himself in. "Uh, candy?" That was always a safe bet.

Gabriel nodded, and reached underneath the couch, pulling out a handful of jelly beans. Sam snorted. He supposed that now Gabriel wasn't able to snap up food at a moment's notice, he had to find other ways of making sure he could eat as much as he wanted - and all things considered, he was adapting rather well to being human. Between the candy and the finally deciding sleep wasn't an inherently evil thing, he was making progress, and it wasn't like any of them had ever expected this to be an easy process.

Sam only hoped that Gabriel's acceptance of all things human continued.

He soon found that he should be very, very careful what he wished for.

 

(III)

"Is it bedtime yet? Is it bedtime yet?" Gabriel tugged on the sleeve of Sam's shirt, grinning up at Sam as the four residents of the bunker finished up their eggs and bacon.

Sam tried and failed to keep a straight face. "Gabriel, it's nine thirty in the morning. What happened to Mr 'I'm An Archangel And I Don't Need To Sleep Ever'?"

"I _don't_ need to sleep," Gabriel said, sticking his nose in the air. "However, I happen to enjoy sleeping. And as a man who always does things to excess, since I enjoy sleeping, I plan to do a lot of it, all the time. So, with that said, I'm going to take my morning nap."

Gabriel downed the rest of his warm milk and stood up, and Sam wasn't entirely sure why he'd even bothered to put on real clothes if he just intended to go back to sleep immediately after breakfast, but then again, Gabriel made a lot of questionable decisions that Sam didn't understand. At least when Gabriel was asleep, he wasn't getting up to any mischief, and that meant that Sam had one less thing to worry about.

He finished up his own breakfast, staying mostly quiet and letting Dean and Cas carry the conversation, since it wasn't like either of them had eyes for anyone but each other. Once he'd drained the last of his coffee, he stood up and stretched.

"Alright, I'm going to the library. Gonna see if I can find anything out that might help with the shapeshifter case. I'll see you two later."

Dean and Cas waved him off, but they didn't notice Sam head off down the corridor in the opposite direction to the library. He pushed open Gabriel's door and leaned against the frame, gazing across at the snoozing archangel, who was now once more wearing his fuzzy moose pajamas, covered with every blanket he could possibly find, his arms wrapped tight around a pillow and a soft smile on his face. 

Sam shook his head. It was kind of adorable, really, the fact that Gabriel got such enjoyment out of something that was as simple as sleep. Sam, who struggled to get to sleep each night and woke up at nothing more than the breath of a breeze through his curtains, hunter instinct always assuming the worst, had to admit that he was a little jealous of Gabriel.

He closed the door as quietly as he could and padded back down the hallway towards the library.

For the next few weeks, Gabriel slept almost twenty-four hours a day, and he seemed to be trying to catch up on billions of years' sleep that he hadn't had. He took morning naps, afternoon naps and evening naps, before announcing that he was going to turn in early for the night. He showed up to meals, during which time he'd give his opinion on cases when Sam asked, often giving valuable knowledge that it would have taken Sam hours to find in a book, even as he was yawning and shuffling on the kitchen tiles in his fuzzy socks, already preparing to go back to sleep. The other three all agreed that since Gabriel somehow managed to be helpful despite only being awake for two or three hours a day, he could sleep as much as he wanted.

And he did.

 

(IV)

Until, one day, he stopped.

Sam wouldn't have thought much of it if Gabriel had just started staying awake more. He'd have assumed that the novelty of sleep had just worn off for Gabriel, and that he was now turning his attention to other human pastimes, such as knitting, or origami. The thing that worried Sam was that when he was awake, Gabriel always seemed to hang around _him_.

The first time it happened was when Sam was cooking lunch.

"You're up early," Sam commented, when he saw Gabriel stroll into the kitchen and lean against the counter. "I'm making a salad for lunch. Anything I can put on yours to make it a little less healthy? Ham, cheese, extra croutons?"

He'd expected Gabriel to be really obnoxious and ask for candy on his salad, but he just gave Sam a small smile and shook his head. "It's fine, I'll just have whatever you're having."

Sam frowned, but he put it down to the fact that Gabriel had probably just got up and wasn't fully awake yet. He put extra cheese on Gabriel's salad anyway and got out some ice cream for dessert so that Gabriel could get his sugar fix, and thought nothing more of it.

But Gabriel started to appear in his orbit more and more, and the only word Sam could find to describe it was _hovering_. Often, Gabriel didn't even say anything, but he'd sit in the seat closest to Sam or pace too-casually around the room Sam happened to be in, doing his best to avoid eye contact and to look like he wasn't doing anything suspicious. And suddenly it seemed like Gabriel wasn't taking any naps at all. He was clearly getting up earlier, as Sam would wake up at six o'clock every day for his morning run to find Gabriel's door open, his bed empty, and the shower already running. He was going to sleep later, as even on the nights when Sam was up until two researching, when he finally turned in for the night, he'd see the television light still on in the living room, Gabriel wrapped in a blanket but clearly upright and awake.

In fact, Sam wasn't sure that Gabriel was even sleeping at all.

But unlike when he'd first arrived at the bunker, when he'd made a big show of chugging coffee and proudly announcing that sleep was for the weak and he planned to do it precisely never, this time Gabriel was quiet about it. He skirted away from any questions about his sleep habits, quickly changing the subject or making a joke to distract whoever was asking.

Sam was concerned, but he didn't really know what he could do about it. Short of trapping Gabriel in a ring of holy fire and refusing to let him leave until he explained himself, Sam didn't entirely know how else to make him talk, so he let Gabriel do what he wanted and just hoped that he'd figure out some sort of balance before too long.

And then, one night a few weeks after all of this started, Sam jolted awake in the middle of the night, bright light hitting his eyes. He reached for his gun with one hand and his watch with the other, only to hear a panicked voice cry, "Sam, it's me!"

Sam fell back on his bed, panting. "Gabriel?"

Gabriel slipped through the door and sidled over to Sam's bed, perching on the very edge of it. The door was cracked open, and the thin beam of golden light danced across Gabriel's face, highlighting how unsure he looked. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you."

"You didn't," Sam replied, even though it was an obvious lie. "What's wrong?"

Gabriel opened and closed his mouth a few times, then groaned in frustration. "So, uh, about those ghosts."

"Don't pull that crap, Gabriel." Sam's watch told him it was three twenty-six in the morning, and he was far too tired for any kind of deflection. "I've given you your space to figure stuff out, but it's the middle of the night and you're in my room and I want an explanation for why you're not sleeping."

Gabriel shrugged, playing with a lock of soft golden hair. "Cause. I can't sleep on my own anymore. Well, I can, but I started having these dreams. About Lucifer and what he did to me and what he might do if he knew I was still alive. And I woke up and I was scared and I didn't know what to do, but then I started coming in here. And-"

"Wait," Sam frowned, trying to piece this together in his sleepy state. "You've done this before?"

Gabriel nodded. "Yeah. You usually don't notice, but I left the light on in the hall tonight by mistake. And I make sure I get up before you but being in here is the only way I can get any sleep without having the dreams. I tried it with Dean and Cas, but it didn't work as well, so I'm here."

Sam blinked sleep out of his eyes, and he felt like there was something missing from this puzzle still, even though nightmares definitely explained why Gabriel had been trying his best to avoid sleep. "But why me? I mean, Cas is your brother, surely it should be him you go to?"

"I guess I just... feel like I'm safe here."

Sam's heart swelled inside his chest, so much that it was almost painful. A memory flashed back into his head - being six or seven years old and waking up in the middle of the night to find that Dean and his father had disappeared, assuming they'd just gone out on a hunt but never quite sure whether they were okay or not, whether they'd be back by morning, and having to try to sleep through the night anyway.

There was no way he'd put anyone through feeling like that, certainly not Gabriel.

"Come here," he smiled, opening his arms for Gabriel to crawl into, and Gabriel did so without question. Sam cradled Gabriel close to his chest, rubbing soothing circles on his back, and Gabriel made a soft snuffling noise as he clutched Sam's pajama top tight in one fist, as though now that he knew Sam wasn't going to kick him out, he never ever planned on letting go.

It only took a couple of minutes for Gabriel's breathing to even out and his body to go limp against Sam's, but Sam stayed awake for a while, thinking. It felt kind of nice to have Gabriel here. Comforting, he supposed. Between Gabriel constantly shadowing him while he was awake, and secretly being here while Sam was asleep, Sam had got used to Gabriel's presence in his life. And he hadn't realized until this moment quite how much he liked having Gabriel around. But that still didn't explain why Gabriel even wanted to spend so much time with Sam in the first place.

And then Gabriel shifted in his sleep, stirring a little. He cracked open one, unfocused eye, and murmured, "Thanks, Sam. Love you, Sam," before immediately dropping off once more.

Sam wasn't about to wake Gabriel up yet again, not even for this, but it was the longest wait til morning that Sam had ever had.

 

(V)

Gabriel tried and failed to muffle his yawn.

"Bedtime, sleepyhead," Sam grinned, ruffling Gabriel's hair. The two of them were cuddled on the couch once more, Sam reading a book that was about the size as Gabriel and almost as old, Gabriel knitting a rainbow striped sweater, half paying attention to a rerun of The Hobbit that was playing on the television. 

"Mmm. One more row of stitches," Gabriel mumbled, and Sam sat with him, fingers still working through Gabriel's hair, waiting for him to finish.

Gabriel stood up, tucking his knitting under one arm, taking Sam's hand with the other. "Alright. Let's go."

It seemed they'd finally found a balance, Sam thought as the two of them changed into pajamas, silent but smiling at each other. They cleaned their teeth side by side, and there was a brief but affectionate argument about how many stuffed animals Gabriel was allowed to have in the bed that night, and then Gabriel launched himself onto Sam's bed (their bed?) and burrowed deep into the blankets, leaving Sam to switch out the light.

He did so, and made his own way to the bed far more sedately, checking to make sure the window was locked and that he still had his gun within reaching distance of his pillow - old habits, considering he didn't worry about those things anywhere near as much these days - and then climbed under the covers, pressing himself against his sleepy boyfriend.

"Goodnight, Gabriel," he whispered, brushing his lips against Gabriel's closed eyelid before settling in to go to sleep himself.

**Author's Note:**

> Sometimes I run a functional blog. **casandsip.tumblr.com**


End file.
